Feminist Economics

This workshop was originally taught at the Summer Academy for Pluralist Economics 2022
Instructor: Natalia Flores Garrido

Session 1: Capitalism and gender relations

In this session we will discuss if capitalism is the context where gender inequalities are reproduced, or if capitalism is something more than a context. If so, how can we understand the interactions between gender and capitalism? Is there a determinism between these two realms (for example: gender inequalities are caused by capitalism) or how is the relationship between them? 

Prescribed readings:

• “Conceptualizing capitalism”, in Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeegi Capitalism, a conversation in critical theory. Polity Press, 2018. 

Session 2: Feminism and difference: intersectionality 

The main objective of this session is to reflect about differences among women and how can we place them theoretically and politically. If we want to advance social justice from a gendered perspective, how could we take into account axes like class and race? 

Prescribed readings:

• “Age, race, class, and sex: women redefining difference” in Audre Lorde Sister Outsider. Crossing Press, 2007, pp. 114 - 123 
• “Coming to class consciousness” in bell hooks Where we stand: class matters. Routledge, pp. 24 - 37

Additional readings (optional): 

• Intersectionality and feminist economics: a call for radical transformation. Natalia Flores Garrido. SOAS Feminist Economics Network. https://soasfemecon.wixsite.com/website/post/intersectionality-and-feminist-economics-a-call-for-radical-transformation
• From Patriarchy to Intersectionality: A Transnational Feminist Assessment of How Far We've Really Come. Vrushali Patil, Signs, Vol. 38, No. 4. Pp. 847 - 867

Session 3: Reproductive work, race and class

In this session we will apply an intersectional perspective to the analysis of reproductive work, is it a women’s work? Which women are we thinking about when we say that capitalism requires unpaid reproductive work? 

Prescribed material:

• Social reproduction: what’s the big idea? Susan Ferguson, https://www.plutobooks.com/blog/social-reproduction-theory-ferguson/“Global Capitalism and Women: from Feminist Politics to Working-Class Women’s Politics”, in Martha E. Giménez Marx, Women and Capitalist Social Reproduction. Brill, 2019, pp. 330 - 344
• Movie: Roma. Alfonso Cuarón. Netflix, 2018. 

Additional readings (optional): 

• Intersectionality and Social-Reproduction Feminisms.  Susan Ferguson. Historical Materialism 24.2 (2016), pp 38 - 60 

Session 4: Women’s participation in the labour market, neoliberal ideas about feminism and empowerment 

In this session we will discuss the interactions between neoliberalism as an economic model and a cultural value, and feminism. Particularly, we will focus on how neoliberal ideas are changing historical feminist demands about women’s participation in the labour market. We will discuss if women’s participation in the paid economy is a synonym of empowerment and autonomy. 

Prescribed material:

• Postfeminism, popular feminism and neoliberal feminism? Sarah Banet-Weiser, Rosalind Gill and Catherine Rottenberg in conversation. Feminist Theory, 2019, pp. 1 - 22
• Video: A Hand Up: UN Women and Coca-Cola South Africa Partner to Economically Empower Women. https://www.empowerwomen.org/en/resources/videos/2015/11/video-a-hand-up-un-women-and-coca-cola-south-africa-partner-to-economically-empower-women?lang=en
• Movie: Devil’s wear Prada. David Frankel, 2006. 

Additional readings: 

• Why women can’t still have it all?. Anne-Marie Slaughter. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/

Session 5: Which feminism?

To conclude the workshop we will discuss what kind of feminism do we need in light of the increasing inequalities and expulsions happening in our current historical moment. Which perspectives and experiences should we consider?  

Prescribed reading:

• Feminism for the 99% A Manifesto. Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Nancy Fraser. Verso Books, 2019. 
• Chapter 1 “Shrinking economies, growing expulsions” in Saskia Sassen Expulsions: brutality and complexity in the global economy. Harvard University Press, 2014.

Download syllabus here